To be fair I don't recommend Windows 8 purely based on the new interface, The amount if people who have come up to me to get Windows 7 put back on their machine is unreal, reason? They hate the new start menu thing that seems to pop up everywhere.

In an enterprise environment, pushing out a Free App is impossible because if you get any issues with it, absolutely no chance of getting support, If It's a paid version, the higher up's ask "why do we need this" only response is "because Windows 8 is a little bit ****"...

I literally don't care (and I bet many people will agree with this) about having the same OS on all my devices, as long as they can talk to each other I would much prefer they were all customized for the device it is installed on, Windows is not a cheap bit of software and now cannot play DVD's straight out the box and so on they've just made an already expensive OS less attractive.

I have no idea what "back end" improvements they've made but apart from a faster boot up time and some fancy graphs when copying stuff it really isn't much better than Windows 7.

In fact after working between the 3 (I've been using 8.1 for a month now) the only useful thing I've found is the ability to mount ISO's straight into My Computer.

No mouse friendly start menu, No DVD playback, No non full screen search options, No easy way to change Licensing details (product Keys etc...) & (although no where near the levels of Vista) Software compatibility issues (Third Party VPN Issues) Older games not working (usually caused by something simple which like installed .NET framework 3.5 which isn't part of the default install) have all killed Windows 8 in most of our client base and (luckily) we're not forced to use a particular version.

So I recommend and install Windows 7 on every machine I build and client install unless instructed otherwise.

To be fair I don't recommend Windows 8 purely based on the new interface, The amount if people who have come up to me to get Windows 7 put back on their machine is unreal, reason? They hate the new start menu thing that seems to pop up everywhere.

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Thats a prime example of failing to force the market to change. Giving the market options and allowing them to change on their own is the only way forward.

"Yeah, but you can get the Start menu back with 3rd party apps, so your argument is invalid!"

Wrong. We have a problem with METRO, in its entirety. Can you get rid of Metro entirely? Nope. Therefore, the above 'defence' is so irrelevant that a flying pig caught it in it's mouth.

Oh, what about the "better dual-screen support"? Wrong, Win8 contains Metro which has horrendous dual-screen support.

What has tainted the OS is Metro. It is an abomination, one which cannot be removed from the OS via any means previously found. As such, Win8 is unusable to a large amount of users. If you can't see how Metro is a problem, then you're obviously not using the OS as much as you think you are.

This Microsoft Hate Debate is hysterical. The lengths to which people will go to discredit something they're not forced to use is disturbing, but wholly entertaining. I even had that BigFatClown guy call me a chimpanzee because I dared to say I was enjoying Windows 8.1.

This Microsoft Hate Debate is hysterical. The lengths to which people will go to discredit something they're not forced to use is disturbing, but wholly entertaining.

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WELCOME to the Internet! If you enjoyed the Microsoft Hate Debate you'll absolutely love these continuing soap opera webisodes:
"AMD Drivers Suck: Confessions of an Nvidia-Since-1995 User"
"Nvidia- Overpriced, Overbearing, and Over Here" by Some-Guy-Who-Last-Upgraded-In-2007"Intel Insidious Inside" - An ongoing monologue from FX owners arguing against having a viable corporate strategy.
"Apple (hard) Core" : Scenes from an internet mosh pit fuelled by anyone that has built their own computer rig.

There is no way Windows 7 is better than Windows 8, that's rubbish in my opinion. Windows 8 is a vast improvement. Yes removing the start menu was stupid but once you add it back with 3rd party software Windows 8 becomes their best OS yet. Guys need to get over bashing Windows 8 just because the start menu was removed, if you couldn't add it back for free I might agree but you can. Let's be honest all versions of Windows would suck if it wasn't for the wealth of 3rd party software.

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Windows 8 should be judged on its own without modifications not sanctioned by MS, by saying its the best version of windows after you modify it you invalidate your argument. I could say the same thing about any number of other items... here are some examples to illustrate my point:

"A Honda Civic is an amazing off-road vehicle! All you need to do is mount the body to a truck frame, swap out the motor and drive train for a V8 and some Dana 44s, and add some 37" tires!"

"A riding lawn mower makes a great vehicle for a single person who just needs to go a few miles! All you have to do is remove the mower deck, swap out the tires for ATV tires, then replace the transmission with one that is designed to go 40 MPH instead of 6 MPH."

"A $300 e-machines from wal-mart is a powerful gaming machine! All you have to do is swap out the power supply with one that is 700W+, add in a GTX 780, upgrade the processor to a quad-core, quadruple the RAM, give it an SSD as a boot drive and use the included hard drive as a data disk."

See where I'm going with this? No, windows 8 is not a good OS... it's terrible, absolutely terrible for anyone not using a tablet, it's designed for touch first and throws us desktop/laptop users under the bus and does this all so that MS can try and force everyone to use their App store.

As far as I'm concerned MS can take Windows 8, their sky-drive, their App store, and any of the rest of their stuff that has no business on a proper computer and shove it up their @$$.

Windows 8 rocks! Love it. Works with a mouse, keyboard, touchscreen, voice recognition, reads all text for you if you want. Just a gorgeous and complete OS. You choose how you interact with Windows. Awesome! With Dell coming out with thier line of multipoint touchscreens for $250 a pop, I'm guessing more and more will go touch! My 2 year nephew loves Windows 8. The touch input expands the audience of Windows. I expect 15% marketshare by EOD.

There is no way Windows 7 is better than Windows 8, that's rubbish in my opinion. Windows 8 is a vast improvement. Yes removing the start menu was stupid but once you add it back with 3rd party software Windows 8 becomes their best OS yet. Guys need to get over bashing Windows 8 just because the start menu was removed, if you couldn't add it back for free I might agree but you can. Let's be honest all versions of Windows would suck if it wasn't for the wealth of 3rd party software.

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That is part of the problem Steve. Microsoft seems to think they can tell consumers what they want instead of listening to what they want. Windows 8 is not being bashed just because of a start button. They are putting a touch screen driven OS on existing desktops that do not support touch screen. Then telling them they have to use the keyboard to sort of get to what they want, though it is not the same. Sure the security and speed maybe much better. But if corporations don't want to fork out tons of money and time for training, it's not going to happen. Instead of telling the consumer what is best for them, maybe they should try listening to what they really want!

Windows 7 with some tweaks and minor script patch can be faster TCP/IP like Windows 8. Really 7 doesn't have the tiles where 8 has both tiles and 7 with some tweaks to TCP/IP all dialog boxes have gone full graphical also gone is the little chimes and dings to smoother sounds effects for issues. To me Windows 7 is where I'll be for now. Even Corp America sticking is not installing Windows 7.

You have to buy new system going to be pushed with Windows 8 not Windows 7. If you have touch screen laptop then Windows 8 will be your friend. Of course Windows 7 can to touch but the interface is not so friendly.

How is exactly Windows 7 better than 8? Because of that rubbish start menu?

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No, because of the rubbish Start Screen. The Start Menu is not rubbish, it has been used for over 15 years. Why don't you wait till they engineer a replacement that works for everyone, before you try and discredit what has been working all along.

Why do I get the feeling the largest split between Windows 8 discussions, are a split between tablet and desktop users? While the rest probably doesn't care what Microsoft feeds them as long as it is change. Somehow I get the impression that forced change for the worst, is somehow seen as innovation regardless the cost.

I'm not going to start swiping 3 inch thumbnails, because some buffoon thought the same operating system UI could be used regardless the screen size.

For everyone that loves Windows 8, I envision you walking around wearing this.

There is no way Windows 7 is better than Windows 8, that's rubbish in my opinion. Windows 8 is a vast improvement. Yes removing the start menu was stupid but once you add it back with 3rd party software Windows 8 becomes their best OS yet. Guys need to get over bashing Windows 8 just because the start menu was removed, if you couldn't add it back for free I might agree but you can. Let's be honest all versions of Windows would suck if it wasn't for the wealth of 3rd party software.

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Stop trying to insult people's intelligence by suggesting that 50% of Windows 7 users at minimum aren't upgrading to the Windows 8 operating system because of a missing Start menu. It's a lot of things. A lot of little things put together and of course the UI. The operating system was designed for tablets. Desktops were considered but it appears they were an afterthought. Functionality was stripped from the operating system that did not have to be stripped. It's only because Microsoft wants to force upon us a dumbed down operating system. One that restricts freedoms. One that keeps Microsoft more in control and the user has less control.

You say Windows 8 is a vast improvement. But you don't say how? Tell us all how it's transformed your life. It boots faster, right? LOL. Ok, I think we all get that at this point.

Windows 8 bashing will continue through at least the next major release of Windows when we declare it(the next release of Windows) either a failure or a success. Until then, you might as well sit back and enjoy the show.

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I agree, they should of added more useful features for desktop users or really just had a windows Desktop and windows tablet versions. I would have wanted things like virtual desktops, real multi-monitor support, an updated start menu (not a start page), and maybe some stuff for gamers since Windows is the gaming platform for PCs (like a gpu monitor in the task manager and something like the Razer Game Booster.) It is nice that they made it start up 5 seconds faster but that's really not something that makes it so I feel like I need it. Plus the GUI on general looks worse they completely removed shadows making it look really flat and dull. If Macs were good for gaming I'd build a Hackintosh tomorrow and use that instead.

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They did add most of that. In my experience Windows 8 is great for gaming. The multi-monitor support is vastly superior to anything before it. Finally a taskbar on each monitor, the ability to only have the open applications on a monitor show on that taskbar, stretch a large background image across all monitors. I love it. Also, the Pro version includes Client Hyper-V so you have the ability to run virtual desktops out of the box now too.